


The Wind In the Dark

by potentiality_26



Category: Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015)
Genre: 5 + 1 Things, Canonical Character Death, Established Relationship, M/M, Supernatural Elements
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-31
Updated: 2016-07-31
Packaged: 2018-07-28 11:45:33
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,146
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7638952
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/potentiality_26/pseuds/potentiality_26
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>“I miss being invisible,” Harry told Eggsy.</i>
</p><p>
  <i>“No you don’t,” Eggsy returned immediately. </i>
</p><p><i>“I definitely do.”  At the very least, Harry missed being unable to go far from Eggsy’s side.  It had been frustrating- even painful- at the time, but it was much worse being so far from him now.  Eggsy’s voice through the glasses was no substitute for Eggsy himself.  “If I still was, you’d have to be here talking to these idiots with me.”</i> </p><p>Sequel to <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/5125229">Enough To Live On</a>, or five ways having an undead Arthur comes in handy (and one way Harry is really a lot of trouble).</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Wind In the Dark

**Author's Note:**

> This fills the "haunted" square for my H/C bingo, because the first thing that prompt made me want to write was a sequel to Enough to Live On. I’m not sure whether or not the Canonical Character Death tag is still applicable, but this is a sequel so it’s canonical to the series. Now, I call this a series, but I decided not to create one here because I’m not planning any other installments (though I may change my mind about that in the future). Since I remember some people not being too into the sex scene last time, fair warning: I open one in media res in this story. The title comes from "Enough To Go By" by Vienna Teng just like the previous story.
> 
> Not Brit-picked.

“I miss being invisible,” Harry told Eggsy.

“No you don’t,” Eggsy returned immediately.

“I definitely _do_.”  At the very least, Harry missed being unable to go far from Eggsy’s side.  It had been frustrating- even painful- at the time, but it was much worse being so far from him now.  Eggsy’s voice through the glasses was no substitute for Eggsy himself.  “If I still was, you’d have to be here talking to these idiots with me.”

“You need those idiots, Harry.  Don’t forget that.”   

“Do I?” Harry asked.  He had been in meetings with the Kingsman board of directors for the last three days, and what little time he hadn’t spent telling them the same things over and over he had spent thinking about how he could render them obsolete.  Kingsman had gotten a major influx of funds from the deaths of former and current agents on V-Day.  Chester King alone had left an enormous estate to the organization.  It was hard for Harry to remember why he needed to keep a group of meddling narcissists who stayed in power mainly through massive donations happy when he had _that_ in his back pocket.  

“You know you do,” Eggsy said.  “There was a traitor in Kingsman and it was your fucking boss.  There has to be _some_ oversight.”

“Now I really wish you were here.”  Harry sighed.  He was leaning against the wall in a mercifully empty corridor of the estate at which the board was meeting, and now he slid down it, resting his elbows on his knees and closing his eyes.  “If you were, you would know that these are not the people to keep me from deciding I can play God.”

“It’s not you I’m worried about.  You got me.”

“Merlin, then?”

“It’s too late for him, we just gotta consider ourselves lucky that he’s on our side.  I mean the whole system, bruv.  You go around answering to nobody for too long and you end up like Valentine, thinking that just because you got a plan that’ll make things better you should just do it, who cares about collateral damage.  I trust you, Harry.  It’s the idea of Kingsman I don’t always trust.”

Harry didn’t ask Eggsy when he had gotten so wise.  “To keep us humble, then,” he said with another sigh.

He certainly felt humble whenever he reported on Chester King’s every decision as Arthur that he knew of- which was almost all of them by then.  He had watched so much footage and read so many files that if he dreamed he would have been dreaming of his former boss, which Harry knew his bed partner would care for not at all.  

Speaking of whom, “Did you just call me bruv, Eggsy?  Because I distinctly recall our last night together being very far from brotherly.”

Eggsy snorted.  “Dunno if I can remember that, _bruv_.  It’s been so long.”

“I suppose I will have to come back and remind you, then.”

“S’pose you will.”  Harry could hear Eggsy’s smile in his voice.  “So get back in there.  The sooner you get this done the sooner you can come home.”

“Yes,” Harry said.  “Goodbye for now, Eggsy.”

“Bye, Harry.  Love you.”

“I love you too.”

Harry disconnected the feed on his glasses and stood, returning to the great hall in which the board was meeting with what enthusiasm his conversation with Eggsy had helped him muster. 

The hall was large, its furniture arranged to make it feel as much like Harry and Merlin were on a trial as possible.  At the far end of the room, beneath the tall windows, were two seats; a dozen or so more faced them on the other side.  Most of the seats were empty with the board on lunch break, and the hall was quiet.  Only Merlin was still there- working busily on his tablet, just as he had been when Harry left. 

“I sincerely hope you ate,” he said, leaning close to Merlin’s ear. 

The quartermaster made a noncommittal noise.  “Honestly, I’m a little surprised that you didn’t stick around to make sure I did.”  He didn’t once look up from his tablet.  “It’s not as if _you_ needed the break.”

“True.”  Harry could eat and even enjoy food but he didn’t _have_ to.  He mainly did it to feel part of a gathering involving food- like social drinking.  “I wanted to talk to Eggsy.”

“Mmm.  And how much patience did that buy you?”

The double doors at the end of the hall opened and the members of the board started to file in.

“We’re about to find out,” Harry said. 

To contribute to the general atmosphere of inquisition, the room had been left rather poorly lit.  It allowed the members of the board to see Harry and Merlin, spotlighted at the front of the room, while they were left largely in shadow, difficult for Harry and Merlin to make out.  It was a good thing, Harry supposed, that neither of them were easily intimidated.

The board’s de facto leader was a woman called Victoria.  She had done most of the questioning up to that point and once they were all settled she was again the first to speak. 

“We have decided that we can consider the matter of Chester King closed,” she said.

“At last,” Merlin muttered.

She fixed Harry with a frankly unsettling look of consideration.  “Which brings us to you, Harry Hart.  His potential replacement.”

Harry kept his expression bland.  “Are you coming to a question?” he asked. 

“What are your qualifications for the position?”

“I was an agent for thirty years,” Harry replied.  “And I was the most senior Kingsman second to Mr. King at the time of his death.”

“Hmm,” she said.  “Yes.  Imagine our surprise when we discovered that you too are legally dead.”

“Yes.”  Harry thought about Eggsy, thought about getting back to him as soon as possible, and decided to move things along rather than make her work for every bit of information he had to relay, as he had been doing up to that point.  “I was shot just prior to what is popularly being called V-Day.  In the aftermath, it was actually several weeks before Kingsman confirmed that I was… still here, by which time I had already been declared dead.”

“I need hardly tell you what an asset a legally dead operative could be in an organization like Kingsman,” Merlin picked up, clearly aware that Harry’s patience was again wearing thin.  Probably his own wasn’t in much better condition. 

“Hmm,” she said again.  “You were shot?”

“By Richmond Valentine, yes.”  Harry hadn’t repeated this one often enough to be weary of it, not yet- but it was hardly his favorite subject. 

“ _How_ were you shot?”

“In the head.”

“And you didn’t die?”

Harry’s smile was all teeth.  “Technically, I did.”

*   *   *

“Oh,” Eggsy breathed, eyes falling closed, head tilting back.  Harry thought Eggsy always looked beautiful, but perhaps never more so than like this- with his throat barred and his lips parted and his whole body gleaming above Harry.  “Christ, you feel so good.”

“I could hardly feel better than you do right now,” Harry said, because Eggsy felt incredible, hot and silky and tight around him. 

Eggsy bit his lip and rocked on top of Harry. 

“Gorgeous,” Harry managed. It felt so good that his eyes wanted to drift shut- but that would deprive him of the sight of Eggsy straddling him, so Harry kept them open, vision almost whiting-out as he pressed up into Eggsy. 

And that was when Harry’s glasses- lying innocently on the bedside table- chirped an incoming message.

Eggsy growled, “Don’t you _dare_ answer that, Harry Hart.”

“Eggsy…”

Eggsy clenched around Harry’s cock, and the drag as he lifted up and then down was _unbearable_.  “ _Harry_.” 

Harry wrapped his arms around Eggsy’s waist and flipped them, resettling between Eggsy’s legs and quickly pushing back inside him again.  Eggsy looked pleased to have won, although the expression didn’t survive Harry’s first thrust. 

“Oh my God,” Eggsy choked out.  His head rolled back against the bedsheets this time, and Harry pressed his lips to Eggsy’s throat. 

“May I mark you?” he asked, hips snapping forward at the thought of it.  “Please?”

“Oh fuck,” Eggsy said.  Something about Harry very politely asking if he could give Eggsy a hickey always seemed to do it for Eggsy.  Harry wasn’t completely sure what that something was, but Eggsy’s cock was rock hard against Harry’s stomach.  He was close.  So close now- and Harry wouldn’t be far behind.  He loved it too, of course- knowing exactly what Eggsy would be keeping under his collar all day.  “Yeah,” Eggsy said, moaning as Harry latched on.  “Yeah.”

The glasses beeped again.

“Harry, next time you leave those in the-” Eggsy was saying. 

At the same time, Harry said, “Almost- there-” and he changed his angle, finding just the right spot to make Eggsy keen.  “Perfect.”  He suckled at Eggsy’s throat and thrust into him with intent, the pressure building. 

“Oh, _fuck_ ,” Eggsy said when Harry wrapped his fingers around his cock and started to stroke him.  “I can’t believe you’re- fuck-”

It wasn’t long before Eggsy stopped being able to form sentences at all, and it wasn’t long after _that_ that he came, splashing across Harry’s stomach.  Harry loved him like this- the way he looked when he lost control, the way he _felt_.  It always took Harry by surprise, how much Eggsy tightened around him as he climaxed.  Harry’s hips jerked, working him deep into that almost-painful tightness, and he followed Eggsy, coming hard. 

He slumped against Eggsy for a moment, forehead resting against his sweaty collarbone, and then he pulled himself up, pressing a quick kiss to the red mark he’d left on Eggsy’s throat.  “Fuck you,” he heard Eggsy pant out.

Harry kissed him again, with a little more intent.  “Later, maybe,” he said.  He had liked to tease Eggsy that way ever since the first time- but more than that, ever since the first time that was usually how things fell out.  Fucking Eggsy was wonderful, of course- but having Eggsy inside him… that was what Harry liked best.  Eggsy might sometimes surprise him by riding him like he had earlier, but Harry had hardly ever fucked Eggsy the way he just did.  It was pleasant to see Eggsy so boneless after the fact, Harry had to admit.  The affect was certainly worth duplicating in the future.  Harry cleaned Eggsy off, enjoying how debauched and pliable he was despite his irritation.

That done, Harry picked up his glasses and put them on, carefully angling his gaze toward the wall.  “What is it, Merlin?” 

“We need your help with something.”

“Yes?”

“We’ve had an agent on a stakeout for the better part of a day, but the trade he was waiting to observe appears to have never taken place.  We need a clue as to what happened- why it was called off if it was, how we missed it if it wasn’t.  Our agent is convinced there’s something worthwhile in the footage he recorded, but… well, between his glasses and the security cameras in the surrounding area, it’s-”

“A lot of footage to go through.”

“About twelve hours of it,” Merlin agreed. 

Merlin had come up with a lot of arguments for why having Harry comb through footage was better than assigning a group to work through it in shifts.  A person working alone would better understand the whole picture, or so he claimed.  Of course, at the time when Merlin had first started to assign Harry tasks like this, they had been incredibly short-handed.  There were more Kingsman now, though, and they weren’t spread as thin as they had been back when Harry was still going through the previous Arthur’s files- although it didn’t feel right, calling him the previous Arthur when there wasn’t officially a current one yet. 

The board members were dragging their feet, as usual, torn between pretending they believed that Harry had been dead for only a few seconds and had gotten some really good plastic surgery, and strapping him to a table and running tests on him for the rest of time.  Harry knew the latter wouldn’t happen, of course- he and Merlin wouldn’t allow it and the board knew that, but they had to at least discuss the possibility for appearances sake.

At any rate, until they decided to make Harry Arthur officially, going through footage was the main thing Harry was useful for.  What was impossible for any other person was simply a matter of time for someone who technically didn’t need to eat or sleep or even blink.

“I’ll be in shortly,” Harry said.

Merlin grunted in agreement.

Harry took the glasses back off again and returned them to the bedside table.  One of the advantages of his current existence was that getting ready to leave the house- once the work of at least an hour- was now the work of seconds.  Harry had a kind of default appearance- in a full suit, hair neat, everything immaculate, more how he had looked when he got ready to leave for Kentucky than how he’d looked when he was shot- and he reset to it whenever he wasn’t paying attention.  Resetting on _purpose_ was another matter entirely and- once Harry had worked out how to do it- it had proved very useful, if somewhat unsettling for Eggsy to witness.  It was a good thing, then, that Eggsy had fallen asleep.

“You leaving?”  Or perhaps he hadn’t.     

“I’m afraid so,” Harry replied as he took a quick look in the mirror, not that his reflection ever changed these days.  Judging by the sleepy two-finger salute Harry could see Eggsy giving him from the bed, he was annoyed with Harry for taking that call and doubly annoyed with him for leaving.  Still, he wasn’t so upset that when Harry returned to the bed to kiss him goodnight and goodbye he didn’t whine softly and bring Harry back in for another kiss.  “I’ll see you tomorrow,” Harry said against his lips.

“Yeah.”  Eggsy sat up a little, kissing him once more.

Harry put his glasses back on and left. 

*   *   *

“I hate this,” Eggsy said.

“That’s normally my line,” Harry pointed out.  He reached between them, taking Eggsy’s hand in his.

“Yeah but normally you’re overreacting.  This time you’re under-reacting.”  Eggsy wouldn’t look at Harry, but he did squeeze his fingers tightly.

“What the board of directors wants _is_ reasonable, Eggsy,” Harry said as soothingly as he could.  “You’re the one who said we needed them.”

“Well, fuck that. Forget everything I said.”

Harry sighed.  “Eggsy.  It makes sense.  They’re going to make me Arthur, they just want some kind of assurance that it isn’t a bad call.  They have to learn more about what I am, what’s happening here.  I’m too unpredictable otherwise.”

Eggsy grumbled something about ‘them’ strapping Harry to a table and running tests on him forever.

Since Harry had thought something similar at one time, he didn’t feel right protesting.  He just lifted Eggsy’s hand to his lips and kissed the knuckles softly.

Harry maintained that these orders made sense.  The board had decided that Harry would be Arthur after all, but only if he agreed to employ someone of their choosing to be his assistant.  They had also, somewhat ambiguously, suggested that she might have some tests to run while she was there, which Eggsy had interpreted rather direly.  

Harry couldn’t help teasing him a little.  After all, Eggsy had been so very gung ho about the whole Arthur business up to now.  Of course Eggsy wanted Harry to have a life, such as that was possible now- but maybe he hadn’t really anticipated having to share Harry in such a way.  Accordingly, Harry joked, “I think you’re just jealous that she’s going to be codenamed Guinevere.”

Eggsy shot him a sharp look, but then softened.  “Yeah, okay.  So what if I am?”

Harry kissed his hand again.  “Then I would remind you, Galahad, that you have nothing to worry about.” 

They were in Arthur’s office- Harry’s office, now- sitting in armchairs close together and waiting for Harry’s new assistant to arrive.  Normally Eggsy’s bad mood would be catching, but Harry actually felt rather good about the whole business.  He understood what the board was doing and- what was more- he thought they were right.  Harry was potentially very useful, but he didn’t want to only discover the limits of that usefulness when it was already too late.  How could he blame them for wanting to make sure they knew what they were dealing with?

Eggsy looked like he was thinking about saying something else, but he never got the chance.  There was a knock on the door.

Harry squeezed his hand tighter.  “All right?” he asked softly. 

“Yeah,” Eggsy said finally, reluctantly. 

Harry released him.  “Come in,” he called out, standing up. 

A young woman who it took Harry a moment to recognize poked her head around the door.  “Hello, Arthur,” she said with a small smile.  “Hello, Eggsy- uh, Galahad.”

Eggsy, who had obviously been readying himself to hate their newest addition on sight, was clearly thrown for a loop.  He stood there beside Harry with his jaw working for a few moments before he said, “Amelia?” slowly.

Her smile was still tight.  “I was one of six candidates they were considering for the job and I thought you might appreciate a familiar face.”

Amelia wasn’t wrong.  Harry had helped Merlin design the first test, and they had spent a lot of time with Amelia making sure her ‘death’ was effective but not genuine.  Harry liked her.  He always had.  “Well then,” Harry said.  “Welcome to the team, Guinevere.”

Eggsy made a face like he’d just sucked on a something sour- but he liked Amelia too, Harry knew he did.  They might not have known each other for very long, but Harry knew Eggsy had bonded quickly and easily to everyone who didn’t automatically treat him like dirt, and what had happened to her- or rather what Eggsy thought had happened to her- had really troubled him.  He would learn to cope with the whole Guinevere thing, and probably sooner rather than later.

Sure enough, he slowly cracked a reassuring smile. 

Amelia smiled back, and then looked to Harry.  “I know this seems invasive, but a PA really will be to your advantage.  And my loyalty would be to you.  Yes, I will be sending regular reports to the board, but I’ll show all of them to you first- and if I ever think that you’re making a bad call or putting yourself or the organization in jeopardy, I will not go over your head with those opinions, not unless I feel I have no other option.  Does that sound fair?”

“It does.”

She smiled.  “Good.  Then I suppose the first order of business is to find out what you can… well, what you can do.”

“Why should that matter?” Eggsy asked in the tone that usually meant he wasn’t sure whether he was trying to pick a fight or not, but he was definitely upset.  “Can’t he just be Arthur like all the other Arthurs before him?”

Harry regarded Eggsy in silence for a moment.  Early on, Eggsy hadn’t been quite so uncomfortable with the idea of Harry using his… abilities to help Kingsman.  In fact, he had once thought it was all pretty cool.  Harry still hadn’t quite worked out what had changed and why, and he didn’t think that hashing it out in front of Amelia would be the best decision, so he simply said quietly, “But I’m not just Arthur like all the others, Eggsy.  It wouldn’t be right not to at least try to use it to our advantage.”

Eggsy crossed his arms protectively over his chest, face contorting, and grumbled something else- this time about ‘them’ sticking Harry with pins and running tests on him.

Amelia huffed out a laugh.  “I won’t lie to you.  It was discussed.  But for the time being the board is more than willing to let whatever we learn be learned at Arthur’s pace.”   

“Thank you,” Harry said.  Her proposition did strike him as entirely fair, and to be honest he was looking forward to getting to work.  He felt a smile tugging at his lips.  He knew Eggsy liked to think of Harry showing off as something that was primarily his territory- and he wasn’t wrong about that- but sometimes Harry just couldn’t help it.  “I’ve been working on getting more control,” he told Amelia.

“Control?”

“For a while I was largely invisible and incorporeal.  Later, when I managed to interact with the world more effectively, my primary concern was becoming as much like a regular person as possible.  But since then I’ve started to work on using those tactics again at will.”

“That could certainly be useful,” Amelia agreed. 

“So,” Harry said, “that leaves us mainly with this.”  He picked up a pen, set it back down, and then passed his hand right through his desk.

Amelia wrote something on her tablet, looking fascinated.  “Is there anything else that dramatic?” she asked.

“One thing,” Harry said slowly.  He had been thinking about it for a long time, but he had only just worked out how to really do it. 

Harry heard Eggsy shift positions, straightening up, but he didn’t look his way.  He knew Eggsy knew he had been working on this trick.  He also knew that Eggsy didn’t like it or want him to make a habit of it, which he might well have to if the board was made aware of it- but at the end of the day Harry thought it was simply too useful to ignore. 

“This,” Harry said, and turned invisible.

Eggsy hated it because when Harry willfully turned invisible even he couldn’t see Harry anymore.  But he was still too aware of Harry to ever have no idea where he was while they were in the same room- and he was glaring at Harry.

“Wow,” Amelia breathed.

It was worth it.  Probably.  

*   *   *

The first time Harry got to use his abilities in the field, it wasn’t how he had pictured it- although in hindsight he probably should have known exactly how it was going to be.

“Are you sure about this?” Amelia asked him over the glasses, in the tone of someone getting a formality out of the way.

“Yes,” Harry told her.  He could have added that tests were only going to get them so far, that a situation like this one was frankly inevitable, that he was already on the plane and it was a bit late to back down now.  He could have said a lot of things, but he didn’t because none of them mattered.  There had never really been any question of whether he was doing this.

 _The way I see it, it’s none of the board’s business,_ Amelia had said to him once. _But just between us, you and Eggsy are…_

_Yes._

And that had been their only conversation on the subject, because when Merlin reported that he had lost contact with Eggsy in the field there hadn’t really been anything else to say.

The unfortunate fact of the matter was that Kingsman agents didn’t typically rescue each other.  Unless a mission was being monitored by Merlin- which was only perhaps a fourth of the time- it was often impossible to know that an agent was even in danger until after it was too late.  What was more, it had never been Chester King’s habit to send uncompromised agents after compromised ones. But if it had been Kingsman’s policy to go after agents who had been captured or worse, Arthur going himself wouldn’t even have borne thinking about.

Harry had been planning to change all that for a long time.  Chester had been right about one thing- it would be entirely too cavalier to send one agent into a possible trap in the faint hope that they would be able to save another.  But Harry… Harry was technically already dead.  Even if his ‘abilities’ turned out to be nowhere near as useful as they seemed to be in theory, the fact that he probably couldn’t die again was always in their favor.  If anyone was going after anyone, Harry had decided a long time ago that it should be him. 

It really just happened that the first agent to go missing was also the one Harry was least prepared to lose.

“I should remind you,” Merlin chimed in, “That you have no idea what you’ll find there.”  Unsaid between the words: _Eggsy could be dead when you find him._

Harry kept silent for a while, finally saying, “I understand.”

He didn’t think for a second that Eggsy was dead, of course.  It would be trite, Harry knew, to say that he would feel it if Eggsy died, and Merlin simply wouldn’t understand- but Harry firmly believed it was true.  He might seem more alive than not at this point, but he was still connected to Eggsy in ways that none of them fully understood.  Harry wasn’t completely sure he would even still be in the world if Eggsy wasn’t.

But it was true that Harry didn’t know what he would find in the compound that Eggsy’s tracker was transmitting from.  After what happened with James, how they hadn’t known until Valentine’s macabre search started that he had even been killed, Merlin had wanted a better way to keep track of his agents so that even if they weren’t wearing the glasses like James or simply weren’t broadcasting to HQ like Harry had been when he went after Professor Arnold, he would still have an idea of what was happening- or had happened- to them.  The trackers Nimue had designed to Merlin’s specifications projected an agent’s location and vital statistics to Merlin in real time- but the one Eggsy had was still a prototype and it was malfunctioning.

They knew where Eggsy was, but not what condition he would be in when they found him, or how many people were guarding the facility where he was being held- though Merlin’s intel suggested quite a few.  This was why they had agreed that the pilot would drop Harry some distance away and then meet him- hopefully with Eggsy- at a rendezvous point.  For everything in the middle, Harry was on his own.

“Good luck, Arthur,” Amelia said.

“Thank you,” Harry replied as he received a message from the pilot.  “We’ve arrived.”

“Well then,” Merlin said in his _not at all worried, why on earth would you think so_ tone.  “Bring our boy home, Harry.”

“I intend to,” Harry said. 

As far as Harry was concerned, the hard part- the waiting for Merlin to activate the tracker, for the plane to be ready, for everyone to have all their ducks in a row- was over.  Harry had missed a lot of things about being in the field since what happened in Kentucky, but most of all he had missed how quickly everything went once it started to get interesting.  Once he was in line with his landing site, it would be a journey of maybe fifteen minutes to the compound, and once Harry was inside he guessed it would take no more than fifteen minutes again to find Eggsy.  He would have him back inside of an hour; it was what happened in that hour that counted.  A part of Harry was looking forward to it, pleased to be in action again despite the circumstances.

“Ready to jump?” Harry’s pilot asked him.

“Always,” he replied.

He had missed the rush of this, although he thought it was all a bit silly.  Opening the doors, parachuting out, the fuss of landing- Harry doubted it was necessary anymore.  He could probably just slip through the floor and go solid again just before he hit the ground, and the impact at any speed was unlikely to hurt him.  After all, what was there to hurt?

But Merlin had argued that it wasn’t worth the risk- _if you turn out not to be invincible after all, Harry_ \- and Harry had decided not to bother fighting him.  It would have been a waste of time.

Still, after it was all over- the roar of the wind, the panorama of territory stretched out in front of him, the business of landing and stowing his parachute- Harry couldn’t resist mentioning that when he landed he hadn’t felt a thing. 

Merlin pointedly said nothing. 

Harry laughed, checked his gun, went invisible, and headed toward the compound at a steady jog.

It didn’t take Harry long to get there, and the place itself was not quite as heavily guarded as Merlin had feared- but of course getting in would be the easy part.  It was getting out with Eggsy that could prove to be tricky.

The compound was two levels, easily traversed by someone who was both invisible and able to walk through walls.  Harry found Eggsy in a cell on the lower level, guarded by two men.  They never knew what hit them.

Eggsy was sitting on the floor with his back to the wall and his elbows on his knees.  He looked up sharply when Harry got the door open and squinted.  “Harry?”

Harry crossed the room and crouched in front of him, touching Eggsy’s chin to gently steer his face into the meagre light coming from the cell’s tiny window.  “Are you all right?” Eggsy had a few bruises on his face and a split lip, but he didn’t look like he’d suffered anything worse.

“M’fine,” Eggsy said, though he winced a little.  “This is creepy, Harry.  Go visible.”

“Right.  Sorry.”

Eggsy gave Harry a grin the moment he could see him properly.  “Hey, Harry.”

Harry smiled back.  “Let’s get you out of here.”

He helped Eggsy up and half carried him out the door.  “I thought about this, you know,” Eggsy said.  “You and me in the field together.”

“Perhaps it will become a more regular occurrence one day.”  Harry had thought about it too, possibly more than was healthy.   

“Better not.  You’re reckless, you are.”

Harry couldn’t deny that, hearing footsteps of guards and pulling Eggsy behind the cover of a wall.  “You should let me take care of this.”

“Fuck that,” Eggsy said.  “Harry-”

“Darling,” Harry murmured, cutting him off with a kiss.  “It’s for the best and you know it.”

Eggsy returned the kiss in a resentful way that suggested the conversation wasn’t over for him.  “Just be careful.”

“Of course,” Harry said.  He would stand between Eggsy and a bullet and go solid without a second thought, but hopefully it wouldn’t become necessary. 

Harry walked out into the hall. 

*   *   *

“Are we sure about this, Guinevere?” Harry said, not for the first time and probably also not for the last.  “Galahad wasn’t at all happy when I did something like this before.”

“Galahad can hear you, you know,” Eggsy said tartly. 

He had recently sprained his ankle and was spending far too much of his recovery leave in the control room harassing Merlin, so Harry wasn’t surprised to hear his voice over the glasses, but he feigned it, saying, “Aren’t you supposed to be resting?”

“I am resting,” Eggsy said.  “Sitting down and all.”

“Of course,” Harry replied.  “But your… condition is all the more reason not to cause you any unnecessary strain.  I shouldn’t want to upset you unduly.” 

 _Upset unduly_ was certainly one way to describe what Eggsy had been after Harry rescued him a few weeks ago.  He had become more protective of Harry than he had been since Harry first came back, and in the bedroom he had seemed determined to bring new meaning to the concept of fucking Harry through the mattress.  If Harry was a normal person he would probably have felt it for a week, but since his reset-to-defaults mode included sensations as well any soreness was gone by morning.

Harry would have been tempted to call that one of the disadvantages to his current existence- except that Eggsy seemed to take it as a challenge.

Still, he had made his opinion of Harry going out into the field- whether or not the risk to him appeared to be minimal- very clear.  And the particular mission Harry had just begun- some invisible spy work of the kind that Harry and Merlin had both been thinking about since Merlin had first brought up the possibility- was useful but not exactly saving the life of a Kingsman or anything particularly urgent. 

Harry knew that Eggsy would be well in his rights to protest.

Eggsy was silent for a moment, and then he said, “I know you want this, Harry.  I did too, you remember that.  It's just that... I saw you die, right?  And sometimes, even when you’re lying right next to me and I can turn over and hold you, I still can’t believe you came back to me.  I know you seem like you’re invincible now and maybe you are, but it messes me up to think there’s even the smallest chance that I might still lose you.  So yeah, it scares me when you go out into the field.  But I'm also happy for you, and I’m okay.  This is what you do. I understand what that means 'cos it's what we both do.  So finish the job, yeah?  And I’ll be here when you get back.”

Harry felt something in him relax.  “Understood, Galahad,” he said.

“That was really beautiful,” Amelia whispered. 

Harry could practically hear Merlin rolling his eyes.  “If you’ve finished using my tech to proclaim your undying love for one another, we have work to do.”

“Yes,” Harry said, going invisible again.  “I suppose we do.”

*   *   *

“You’re making a big deal over nothing,” Eggsy said. 

“That doesn’t sound like me,” Harry murmured.

Eggsy gave an _I’m not dignifying that with a response_ snort and then fell silent.  “My target’s coming into range, okay?” he said after a moment.  “I’ll see you tomorrow.  And for the last time, Merlin is not mad at you.”

Merlin definitely was, but Harry decided not to antagonize Eggsy further.  “Yes, dear,” he said instead.  “I’ll see you.”

“Love you.”

“I love you too.”

Eggsy disconnected and Harry drew back from the desk he was manning in the handler’s division.  He liked to help out down there when he didn’t have anything else to do, and he had picked this desk in particular because it afforded him a good view of Amelia bringing Nimue a cup of tea periodically and flirting with her shamelessly over it.  Unfortunately, he could also lean back in his chair and glance toward Merlin’s office- from whence Merlin was glaring at him.   

Merlin _was_ angry at him, which Harry would have minded less if he had the first idea why.  “That’s it,” he muttered to himself, making his way into Merlin’s office.  “What have I done?” he asked the moment the door clicked shut behind him. 

Seated behind his desk, Merlin gave Harry a look that usually meant he was debating denying that anything had happened at all.  “You died,” Merlin said at last.

Harry paused.  “Is that only just hitting you?”

Merlin rolled his eyes.  “No, thank you, and if you ask me if I want to talk about it I will make you regret it.  But while it is enormously convenient to have a legally dead operative in some respects, it is very _in_ convenient in others.  For instance, are you aware that Eggsy technically owns your house?”

“I am now.  Does that mean I should be paying him rent?”

“This isn’t about rent.”

“What _is_ it about?”

“It’s about how extraordinarily difficult it was to make an identity for you airtight enough to allow you to do something that people typically need a license to do.”

Harry hesitated.  “Like what?”

“Like get married, you idiot.”

“Do you mean-”

“Yes.  You may now officially offer to make an honest man out of Eggsy and be in a position to legally do so.”

Harry felt inexplicably lightheaded.  “What brought this on?”

Merlin gave him a long look.  “I know you sometimes still don’t feel completely part of this world.”

Trust Merlin to think that legal identification was the best solution to that problem.  Harry wasn’t sure how right he was about that- but marrying Eggsy… Harry couldn’t deny that he’d wanted it, or that he had occasionally thought that if anything could solidify things completely it would be that.  “Thank you,” he said, frankly a little choked up.  “My friend.”

“You and Eggsy are going to be unbearable,” Merlin muttered.

They probably were. 

**Author's Note:**

> Come see me on [tumblr](http://potentiality-26.tumblr.com/).


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